UKC

As title suggests, any information on Font in November?

Mainly has anyone been at this time of year and has weather been OK to climb for a week?

Thinking of going (all dependent on travel restrictions etc) and wondered whether its worth the journey at that time of year.

TIA.

I used to live in Paris & travel out to 'bleau throughout the year. November can be good, with dry cool/cold weather but more likely is damp cool weather with scattered rain & days of heavy rain isn't impossible. Some of the more open areas dry pretty quickly which helps but I'm not sure I'd travel very far at that time of year if climbing was the main reason to travel.

And that's before thinking of Covid related problems

Ive been to font on trips all year round and its been great, but from October onwards they need to be last minute decisions when there's a dry spell. I definitely wouldn't plan a trip in advance. 

Thanks, I was expecting you to say something along those lines! I will see how the weather looks closer to the time!!

Thanks for the info! It's either font or North Yorkshire. roughly the same......

I've done Font trips all through the year.

If you get a dry period in November, you can get great conditions which are ideal if you are going to try and project hard (for you) problems. The friction can be night and day compared to warmer months.

But the rock will be much slower to dry than during the summer. We were there over New Year a few years ago. We waited until there was a decent weather window before we booked last minute tickets and traveled. It made our trip shorter but we arrived and climbed on our first day. We met people who had been there for 3 weeks and this was their first day of being able to climb!

If I was going with a mixed ability group who wanted to try different things or do circuits, I would wait for warmer months instead.

Good to hear! This would probably be a purely selfish trip on my own so very easy to just see what the weather is doing 2 days before I book anything.

Thanks for the info.

The only time I've booked a trip to 'bleau in November the forecast was shit and as time got closer I told my accomplices to pack snowboards as well as boots/mats.  On arrival in Milly in the rain, we piled into the cafe and checked out the three day forecast for 'bleau and Geneva again.

Back into the van, drove another 7 hours or whatever and spent a glorious weekend riding at Tignes. Drove back Sunday night and just managed to catch some dry rock on the Monday afternoon when it eventually dried off. As above, it takes a long time to dry on November.  Met some studes on the Eurotunnel and they said it rained all three days we were down south and they got nothing done at all.

So, the moral of the story is ...

Something.